Elementary, junior high school students learn about horrors of atomic bombing on A-bombed streetcar, listen to experience of atomic bombing
Aug. 5, 2022
by Yuichi Ishii, Staff Writer
Before the August 6 anniversary of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima, an event was held in the city on August 4. About 60 elementary and junior high school students and their guardians rode on a streetcar that was exposed to the atomic bombing and listened to an experience of an A-bomb survivor, thinking of the horrors of the atomic bombing.
Divided into two groups, the participants left a streetcar stop in front of the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and took a one-hour tour of the city. On A-bombed streetcar No. 651, Goro Nishida, 80, a resident of Minami Ward, told his experience of being exposed to the atomic bomb near his house in Mitaki-machi (now part of Nishi Ward) about 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. His mother died suddenly 14 years later apparently from the aftereffects of radiation exposure. Mr. Nishida said, “The effects of radiation are not limited to the time immediately after the bombing, and they last long, which is frightening.”
Aoi Teramoto, 13, a second-year student at Furuta Junior High School, said, “I realized how scary radiation is because it is invisible and has no smell. I want to convey the importance of peace to many people.”
The Hiroshima Institute for Peace Education, which is based in Higashi Ward and is composed of teachers, organized this event. Taking precautions against the novel coronavirus infections, they held the event for the first time in three years.
(Originally published on August 5, 2022)
Before the August 6 anniversary of the atomic bombing on Hiroshima, an event was held in the city on August 4. About 60 elementary and junior high school students and their guardians rode on a streetcar that was exposed to the atomic bombing and listened to an experience of an A-bomb survivor, thinking of the horrors of the atomic bombing.
Divided into two groups, the participants left a streetcar stop in front of the A-bomb Dome in Hiroshima’s Naka Ward and took a one-hour tour of the city. On A-bombed streetcar No. 651, Goro Nishida, 80, a resident of Minami Ward, told his experience of being exposed to the atomic bomb near his house in Mitaki-machi (now part of Nishi Ward) about 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter. His mother died suddenly 14 years later apparently from the aftereffects of radiation exposure. Mr. Nishida said, “The effects of radiation are not limited to the time immediately after the bombing, and they last long, which is frightening.”
Aoi Teramoto, 13, a second-year student at Furuta Junior High School, said, “I realized how scary radiation is because it is invisible and has no smell. I want to convey the importance of peace to many people.”
The Hiroshima Institute for Peace Education, which is based in Higashi Ward and is composed of teachers, organized this event. Taking precautions against the novel coronavirus infections, they held the event for the first time in three years.
(Originally published on August 5, 2022)
